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Breakthrough! Trial mining of flammable ice in China's seas successfully opens a new chapter

Release date: 2019-10-23

On May 18, the Ministry of Land and Resources announced that China's first successful trial of natural gas hydrates (flammable ice) in sea areas was successfully completed.  As a result of stable gas production for 7 consecutive days and 19 hours in trial mining, China is at the forefront of the world.  The human energy landscape has opened a new chapter.

    The exploitation of US shale gas has pulled the international oil price from a high of US $ 100 / barrel to about US $ 40 / barrel, and China's successful trial exploitation of combustible ice in the South China Sea may once again set off an energy revolution.  The China Geological Survey of the Ministry of Land and Resources announced on the 18th that China's first seawater gas hydrate 'combustible ice' trial mining was successful, becoming the first country in the world to achieve continuous and stable gas production in seawater combustible ice trial mining.  Singapore's 'Lianhe Zaobao' reported on the 18th that China's jurisdiction over the waters is rich in combustible ice resources. According to estimates, the total amount is tens of billions of tons of oil equivalent.

    Combustible ice is a natural gas hydrate that is widely distributed in continental permafrost, island slopes, uplifts of active and passive continental margins, polar continental shelves, and deepwater environments of the ocean and some inland lakes, with methane content ranging from 80% to 99.9%  It is crystalline in high pressure and low temperature environment, and is flammable in fire, so it is called flammable ice.  This fuel burns much less pollution than coal, oil, and natural gas.

    Trial mining of combustible ice has been a worldwide problem.  Because most of them are buried on the ocean floor, the mining is very difficult.

    China's trial of combustible ice facilities is different from Japan.  Hong Kong's 'South China Morning Post' reported that Japan's tests were carried out on board while China used a floating platform.  This time, China's mining of combustible ice uses the depressurization method to reduce the originally stable pressure on the ocean floor, thereby breaking the conditions for gas hydrate reservoirs to accumulate, and finally using a set of core technologies for water, sand, and gas separation independently developed by China.  Take out the natural gas.  Lin Boqiang, Dean of the China Energy Policy Research Institute of Xiamen University, told reporters from the Global Times on the 18th that combustible ice is buried in the deep ocean and is very unstable. It is very difficult to mine. Stable gas production for 8 consecutive days is 'a technological breakthrough.'  'We have done something that no one else has succeeded.

    Energy economics expert and special researcher of the China South China Sea Research Collaborative Innovation Center of Nanjing University, Zhang Liangfu believes that 'with optimistic estimates, the commercialization of combustible ice can be achieved around 2030', but countries are currently in the laboratory stage, and there is still more to commercialize  It is also difficult to estimate over long distances, 'how to mine economically, effectively, and safely is a difficult problem to be solved.

    China is a big importer of oil and gas resources and has a high degree of dependence on foreign countries. Zhang Liangfu said that the development and utilization of combustible ice will significantly increase China's energy security.  The global energy consumption structure is undergoing profound changes. The gradual realization of combustible ice extraction will definitely have a profound impact on international energy and national oil in the future.  Lin Boqiang said that if humans can effectively use combustible ice in the future, the energy structure will change drastically, and the energy market will definitely lean towards clean energy such as combustible ice and natural gas.

    The marine mud cooling system and land mud cooling system developed by Qingdao Taizhong Energy Technology Co., Ltd. have filled the gaps in domestic mud cooling processing systems, can effectively reduce the temperature of drilling fluids quickly, and are suitable for domestic combustible ice drilling and high temperature and high pressure wells!